Liquid crystal display devices are flat thin display devices which are most typically used for various OA apparatus terminal equipments, liquid crystal TVs, etc. For liquid crystal display devices, glass substrates are generally adopted, and for the storage and transport purpose of these glass substrates (including complete panels) to carry them between glass substrate manufactures and liquid crystal panel manufactures, glass substrate storage containers made of foamed resin material are generally used.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 7-132986/1995 (Tokukaihei 7-132986/1995, published on May 23, 1995) (U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,531, Date of patent: Dec. 31, 1996) discloses a glass substrate storage container made up of a storage container main body with a bottom surface and a lid member, wherein a pair of opposed side plates of the storage container main body has a plurality of holding members for holding the glass substrates in parallel in a stand position or a horizontal position so that respective glass substrates do not contact each other.
Specifically, as illustrated in FIG. 15(a) and FIG. 15(b), a glass substrate 104 having a thickness of 0.7 mm or a thickness of 1.1 mm generally used in the field of liquid crystal display is stored in a substrate storage container 101. This substrate storage container 101 includes holding members 103 formed on a pair of opposed inner faces so as to hold the glass substrates 104 in parallel so that respective glass substrates 104 do not contact in a vertical direction. Each glass substrate 104 is inserted in a space between the opposed two holding members 103 to be stored in the substrate storage container 101.
As illustrated in FIG. 16, an angle of hold θa formed by each holding member 103 and the inner side face of the substrate storage container 101 is generally 90°.
Another structure of the substrate storage container is disclosed, for example, by Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 10-120074/1998 (Tokukaihei 10-120074) published on May 12, 1998 wherein in a container for storing a plurality of LCD panels of different sizes in a lateral direction, holding members formed on at least one of the side faces for holding the LCD panels are sloped downwards. Here, each substrate stored in the container is held in a shape of a curve by its deadweight. Furthermore, the LCD panel shown in FIG. 17 is merely hanged on the holding members, and the side ends of the LCD panel do not contact the side walls of the container.
On the other hand, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-322056/1998 (Tokukaihei 10-322056) published on Dec. 4, 1998 discloses the structure wherein a substrate cassette width can be increased/reduced according to the size of the substrates to be stored.